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Former Westminster police officer convicted on sexual misconduct charges

Handcuffs and wooden gavel. Crime and violence concept.

A former Jefferson County police officer and investigator has been convicted of two counts of unlawful sexual contact and acquitted of a third, prosecutors said Monday.

Wayne Darrell Nelson, 69, faces up to a year in jail for each conviction. He was initially charged with seven counts last summer, after he was accused by three women, all of whom were his tenants or roommates, of sexual misconduct between April 2018 and December 2020. One said Nelson forcibly groped and solicited sex from her.

Prosecutors said in a statement that Nelson’s victims were scared to report Nelson because he had previously been a police officer. He was a police officer in Westminster and then an investigator with the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office until 2014. 

At the time of his arrest, Nelson was teaching concealed-carry weapon classes, as well as a women’s self-defense course. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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